Digging the Director

By Jennifer Nice

Palaeontologist Ren Bradley has lost her job and her boyfriend in the space of one week. Now she's leaving behind her family and friends in London to start a new job in Edinburgh, for a gaming company. Ren knows nothing about gaming, but she does know dinosaurs.
They want authentic dinosaurs and she needs the job. What could be more exciting than a new city and meeting new people? Even if one of those people is an American capitalist. Although he is a handsome silver fox, and has a captivating laugh, and is it her imagination or is he a bit of a sweetheart?

New Yorker Harrison Calloway has a way with money. If only he had a way with love. A hopeless romantic who has been stung before, he's moved across the Atlantic for a fresh start. His heart says Ren is different, that she might be the one, but his heart says that a lot. The thing is, the longer he waits to make sure, the more chance he'll lose out.

Even if Harrison can win Ren's heart, will their employer end things before they can really get going? Will love find a way?

Contains: Swearing, sex but NO explicit sex, and dinosaurs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Write into the Woods Publishing
• Release date: Feb 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9781912903405

Book preview

Digging the Director

Jennifer Nice

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Write into the Woods Publishing

Copyright © Jennifer Nice 2023

All rights reserved.

Jennifer Nice has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2023 by

Write Into The Woods Publishing.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, contact Write into the Woods Publishing.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

ISBN 978-1-912903-40-5

Cover design and typesetting by Write into the Woods.

www.writeintothewoods.com

www.nicebycandlelight.co.uk

Contents

Dedication

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

Epilogue

If You Enjoyed Digging the Director

Books By Jennifer Nice

To all the people whose eyes are caught by silver foxes.

1

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Ren tried to memorise the way they were walking, her distracted gaze fixating on comparing her choice of outfit with the woman who was showing her around. At the end of the day, it wouldn’t matter if she wasn’t dressed appropriately for working at a gaming company if she couldn’t find her way out of the building.

‘There’s a kitchen here on every floor and each one has a fridge, coffee maker, all the usual. Just make sure you clean up after yourself.’

‘Of course.’

The woman leading her around had introduced herself as Bonnie and had a short blonde bob and dazzling blue eyes. Ren, however, was more interested in her denim dungarees and white t-shirt. After a week – an actual week – of repeatedly changing her mind over which outfit to wear for her first day, Ren had gone with logic and comfort. They’d hired her as an academic and a scientist, so that was what they were going to get. She’d forgone the dresses she loved so much and chosen loose trousers with a shirt and a smart woollen cardigan, but because this was Ren, the shirt was blue and the cardigan was green. She’d also tied her long red hair back. She didn’t know why, it had just seemed like the right thing to do.

But in every space, nook and cranny of the office building she’d seen so far was a mixture of men and women in smart-ish suits, jeans, t-shirts with slogans, dresses, heels, flats, sandals – sandals! In a Scottish October! – and Ren was beginning to realise that perhaps anything went here.

‘This is our marketing team, you’ll get to know some of them. And upstairs, top floor, is where we are, along with our development team.’ Bonnie led Ren to the lift and up they went. Floor five. Ren unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth and wondered where the nearest toilets were.

‘Have you ever worked in gaming before?’ Bonnie asked.

Ren shook her head.

‘No. This is all very new.’

‘I bet. A nice, shiny, purpose-designed office building instead of a dusty museum. There’s something very romantic about a dusty museum, though.’

Ren agreed.

‘There is. But actually my last job was in a university.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yeah, they made a bunch of us redundant. I’d only been there a few months.’

‘That must have been a shock. I thought you worked in a museum?’

‘I did. The Natural History Museum in London. The dream,’ said Ren, a little too wistfully. ‘But my contract ended and they couldn’t renew it.’

‘You hoping they’ll be able to hire you back after this contract is through?’

Ren smiled and shrugged.

‘Maybe.’ Not a chance in hell, she told herself. That wasn’t going to happen, no matter how much she wanted it to. No, once this contract was done, she’d be back searching for something else again. She had twelve months but could probably only relax with a steady paycheque for nine of those. Just the thought of it was exhausting.

The lift doors opened with a ping and Bonnie led the way out. The top floor, much like the others, was decorated in the company’s brand colours of green, yellow and brown. It was open-plan but with good distinction between the teams.

‘As with the other floors, we’re separated by the projects,’ Bonnie explained, leading Ren into the open-plan office, between desks. The company was working on about six projects at any given time, Bonnie had explained on the first floor full of admin, HR and accounts. However, in this building, they were focusing on only two of those projects. ‘This is the side you’re interested in,’ said Bonnie, pointing to the right. ‘This is our project and right here, this is your desk.’

Bonnie stopped at an empty desk, complete with laptop, docking station, a solitary drawer and a chair that had seen better days. Next to Ren’s desk was an empty table and opposite was a man with his head down over his keyboard.

‘Billy.’ Bonnie rapped her knuckles on the table and the man looked up with bleary eyes. ‘This is Billy, he’s our project manager. Billy, this is Ren, our new consultant.’

Billy’s brown eyes widened and he grinned, standing and offering Ren his hand.

‘Our palaeontologist has arrived,’ he said breathlessly.

Ren could only take it as a compliment as the heat rushed to her cheeks.

‘Yes. Present and correct.’ She shook his hand and resisted the immediate urge to curtsey. Who curtsied? What was wrong with her?

Billy blew the brown hair from his eyes and sat back down, the grin still on his face. It made him look boy-ish and harder to get a read on how old he was. Not that it mattered. Although he did have a lovely soft Scottish accent. One of the benefits of having to move to Edinburgh, Ren had decided while packing up her Essex flat, was the accent. It was hard not to think about whether she’d end up meeting a gorgeous man with a Scottish accent, no matter how much she tried to push the thought away.

Not Billy, though. Not the man sitting opposite her at work.

‘Come on, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the senior team and then I’ll let you get settled,’ said Bonnie.

‘Later,’ Billy said to Ren before lowering his head back to his work.

‘This is my desk.’ Bonnie gestured to a desk just behind Ren’s, covered in papers and pens, and a notebook filled with doodles. Ren would have thought that the head art designer would have a clearer desk, maybe with a large screen and digital pen. But what did she know?

‘Liam sits there. He’s our head developer, in charge of creating the actual game.’ She pointed to the desk opposite. ‘Then, just down here is our executive producer, and the finance and marketing directors.’ Bonnie showed her the way down a narrow corridor, pointing out two meeting rooms with glass panelled walls and – much to Ren’s relief – the toilets.

At the end of the corridor were two square offices. Bonnie knocked gently on the first office door and then let herself in, Ren following. On the right, Bonnie pointed to a tidy desk and empty chair. ‘That’s Val’s desk, she’s the marketing director. She’s often out doing events and things. And when she is here, she spends most of her time on the fourth floor with marketing. We don’t really know why her desk is up here. And this is Harrison Calloway, our finance director.’

Ren tore her gaze from the window behind Val’s desk looking out towards Edinburgh Castle and met the cool blue eyes of a man with silver hair, flecked with dark brown, and a short silver beard. Ren blinked and Harrison blinked back.

‘Harrison, this is Ren Bradley. Our resident palaeontologist. Today’s her first day.’

‘Ah, the new kid.’ Harrison held out a hand but Ren hesitated. Kid? Did he just call her kid? He couldn’t be more than ten years older than her. Kid, indeed. His accent wasn’t Scottish, or English. Remembering herself, she reached out and shook his hand. His skin was soft and warm, and he gave her hand a little squeeze before letting go. Ren hated when men did that. A shot of pleasure swept through her. How dare he do such a thing.

‘Harrison is from New York,’ Bonnie explained as if hearing Ren’s thoughts. ‘Be nice to her,’ she added to Harrison.

‘I’m always nice,’ said Harrison, his eyes on Ren. ‘What were you doing before this?’ he asked.

‘I was a university lecturer,’ Ren told him.

Harrison raised one eyebrow slightly and gave her something of a half-smile that instantly hit her as charming but with a question mark.

‘Gaming industry newbie,’ said Bonnie. ‘Harrison was too when he joined us. We’ll teach you the ropes soon enough.’ She flashed Ren a grin and then led her out. Ren glanced back over her shoulder as she followed, and hurriedly looked away when she discovered Harrison was watching her leave.

‘He isn’t nice to people?’ Ren asked quietly before she could stop herself.

Bonnie laughed.

‘He is. He’s just very good at his job. A bit cut-throat, you know? Think Wolf of Wall Street.’

Ren stopped herself from looking back to Harrison’s office.

‘And this is our executive producer. He’s our big boss, as high as it gets around here without going to head office,’ said Bonnie, knocking on the remaining office door. Ren swallowed against her dry mouth and steeled herself. A muffled voice broke through and Bonnie opened the door revealing an office slightly bigger than Harrison and Val’s with a glorious view across the old part of the city through large windows. If Ren had been able to move to the right a little, she fancied she would have a good view of Arthur’s Seat. Which begged the question as to why Martin Clyde sat with his back to it.

Ren had met Martin at her interview and he was shockingly younger than she had expected of someone so high up. There was something a little depressing about the fact that he was a whole year younger than her (according to his online profiles she’d found while snooping after her interview). How did some people manage to get so far in life so quickly while others stumbled along, worrying how they would keep a roof over their heads?

‘Good morning, Ren. Welcome!’ Martin stood and shook Ren’s hand. ‘Bonnie’s shown you around, Ren? Good, good. Well, we have our regular senior management meeting in a couple of hours. You’re invited to them, they’re every week. Someone will send the invitations through once you’re set up. We’re not expecting anything huge from you today, Ren, of course, but maybe the meeting will help you to orient yourself, yeah? Have you met Harrison and Val yet?’

‘Harrison, yes. Val’s not here,’ said Bonnie before Ren could reply.

‘Of course, of course. She said she’d be in late today, I forgot. She’ll be here for the meeting though, you can meet her then, Ren.’ Martin gave Ren a wide grin. ‘So, go settle in. Any questions, just ask whoever’s around. Really excited to have you with us, Ren.’

Ren nodded and thanked him, flinching at how often he spoke her name. Why did people do that? Did he have a bad memory? Was it a power play? Is that how people got to the top of the company hierarchy?

Martin went back to his work, dismissing them, and Bonnie ushered Ren back out into the corridor.

‘Nice views these offices have, huh?’ she asked, leading Ren back past the toilets and meeting rooms. ‘This is where the meeting will be,’ she added, pointing to the room on the left. ‘Try not to get distracted but if you manage to get a seat on the far left and lean over a bit, you can just about see the castle.’

Ren gave a small laugh.

‘Are you from Edinburgh?’ she asked.

‘No. I’m from Aberdeen, well, no, a town outside Aberdeen, but close enough. You’re from the South East?’

‘London,’ said Ren. ‘Or close enough.’

Bonnie flashed her a smile and then settled Ren at her desk.

‘Billy. Could you give her a hand with her laptop? Get her email and everything up? I checked with IT yesterday, it should all be there, but you know what first days are like.’

Billy stood, gave Bonnie a mock salute and walked around the desks to Ren who was trying to get comfortable on her chair.

‘I’ll come get you for the meeting, okay? Until then, just familiarise yourself.’ Bonnie gave Ren’s chair a comforting tap and walked back to her own desk.

‘Let’s see here,’ Billy murmured, opening Ren’s laptop and typing in the generic password IT had left on a Post-it. ‘You can change the password in a bit. Let’s just set up the email and messages and stuff.’

Ren let Billy tap away at the laptop and waited until he was ready to show her around her new digital office. It didn’t take long. After Billy had returned to his desk, Ren spent another ten minutes going through the shared folders and attempting to figure out what she had let herself in for.

‘Have you played any of our games?’ Billy asked, standing and holding up a coffee cup.

‘No,’ Ren admitted.

‘Wow, throwing yourself in the deep end.’ He grinned and shook the cup at her. ‘Coffee?’

‘Please.’ Ren dug around in her bag for the cup she’d brought and then followed him hastily over to the kitchen area and the coffee machine. ‘You’ll have to show me how it works.’

‘Oh, it’s simple. And maybe after the meeting, I’ll get you in the gaming chair.’

‘The what?’ Ren’s heart jolted.

‘Don’t panic. There’s a room over there’ – Billy pointed – ‘with a few consoles and screens. It’s a break area, technically, but I can show you the game we’re working on so you know what we’re talking about. In fact, if we have time, we can do it now. What do you think?’

Ren blinked. Her first day in a new job and she was going to be asked not only to bring her expertise to a senior management meeting but also attempt to play a game she knew nothing about on a console she had no understanding of. This wasn’t just the deep end. This was more like shark-infested waters.

‘Sure,’ she said, her mind swimming, desperately trying to watch what buttons on the coffee machine Billy was pressing. ‘Sure thing.’

2

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Harrison was the second person to arrive at the senior management meeting. He’d been expecting to be the first.

‘Morning, Val. I didn’t see you come in.’ He sat at the opposite end of the long table to the marketing director.

‘I’ve been downstairs,’ she said, not looking up from her laptop.

Harrison sighed softly through his nose and tapped his fingers against the table. Not a senior management meeting went by when he wasn’t reminded of how glad he was that Val spent most of her time downstairs instead of in their supposed shared office. His gaze moved a fraction to his coffee cup and its cold remains.

‘Gonna go get a coffee,’ he said, standing and grabbing the cup. ‘Want anything?’

‘No, thanks.’ She still didn’t look up.

That was fine by him.

Harrison strode out of the meeting room, happy to have claimed his seat and wondering where the others were. He entered the open-plan part of the office and found Bonnie on the phone. She gave him an apologetic shrug of her shoulders and then made a chatty motion with her hand. Harrison grinned. Liam’s desk was empty, who knew where he was. Billy’s desk was also vacant, along with the desk opposite his. The one Bonnie had been preparing the day before for the new starter. The new kid.

He hadn’t meant to call her that.

He’d been startled by how attractive she was, by her red hair and then, when she spoke, by the fact that she wasn’t Scottish as he’d been expecting. ‘Kid’ had just fallen out of his mouth.

Where were they all?

Harrison made his way to the coffee machine and started it up, scanning the office as he waited. There they were. Billy was in the break room, leaning over Ren, telling her what buttons to press as they attempted to play with the shambles that was the game they were currently working on. It seemed unfair to unleash it on the poor girl on her first day. The game was nowhere close to being playable yet. Harrison didn’t know much about gaming, but he knew enough about making money to understand that the game was a long way from being finished, let alone profitable.

Taking his coffee, he paused to watch for a moment. Bonnie was still on the phone, Liam was still missing. Smiling, Harrison wandered over to the break room and leaned against the doorframe.

‘You’re gonna be late for the meeting.’

Ren jumped and turned to look at him. Billy glanced back to him and checked the time on his phone.

‘Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s where we’re up to. What do you think?’

Ren stared at the screen as Billy shut it all down.

‘Erm. Good,’ she said.

Harrison held in a laugh. She didn’t have a clue. Neither had he. He waited to see if anything more was coming.

‘It’ll be interesting to see where you’re up to with it all coming together,’ she said, climbing out of the chair and straightening her clothes. She avoided Harrison’s gaze but he watched her intently anyway, as tendrils of hair fell out of her ponytail and she pushed them back behind her ears. She wasn’t wearing any rings, he noted.

‘Oh?’ he asked when Billy remained frustratingly quiet. ‘Got some suggestions?’

Ren gave a small flinch, then straightened and looked him in the eye. Her eyes were the dark green of the cardigan she wore; a cardigan which was adorable.

‘I did spot a few inaccuracies,’ she said.

Harrison laughed.

‘That’s one way of putting it.’ He glanced at Billy who was gathering his things.

‘Best get to the meeting,’ said the project manager. ‘Don’t want to keep Martin waiting.’ He left the room, squeezing past Harrison. Harrison watched Ren turn her shoulders to go past him, following Billy, before taking up the rear, sipping his coffee and smiling to himself.

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The meeting started with Martin introducing Ren to everyone she’d already met and then to Val and Liam, who finally turned up ten minutes late. Harrison leaned back in his chair, sipping his coffee as Martin worked his way through the agenda. First, an update from Billy.

‘We’re bang on schedule. And I’ve shown Ren some of the game we have so far. I reckon with her input and a little more of a push, we could even get ahead of ourselves.’

Harrison raised an eyebrow, filled his mouth with coffee and watched amused as Liam muttered something under his breath, which everyone pretended not to hear.

Next was an update